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The Communist successes under the leadership of Mao Tse-tung propelled Mao into legendary status as leader of the Chinese Communist Party, having proved that under the proper leadership, his people could march to victory. In the fifties and sixties, Mao Tse-tung acted as leader of the both the Chinese revolution and the Chinese Communist Party. Distraught at the present state of his country, whose fruits of victory were being to sour, he became determined to launch a second revolution with an objective of a socialist utopia. The Mao was suspicious almost to the point of paranoia, fearing that those who had sworn loyalty to him were turning against him in droves. He also had an ingrained distrust for the intellectuals whose interests were slowly turning from the ideological to the technological. He feared that the increasing professional bureaucracy he had witnessed taking place in the Soviet Union was destined to occur in his own country as well.
During this time period, Marxism was fast becoming an intriguing alternative for many Chinese intellectuals, with Communism appealing directly to their growing fears of the ongoing dissension within Chinese society. China’s intellectuals realized that they were no longer standing on high moral ground, and became confused about what their purpose was in relation to the state. The Chinese people were also growing weary of Mao's ideologies and were even beginning to question whether the implementation of those ideologies had done more harm than good. This was something he could not tolerate.
This intolerance marked the beginning of what is known to historians as "The Great Leap Forward", a misguided program aimed at increasing agricultural production and creating overnight economic success. The plan was to employ millions of farmers in the construction of roads, dams, and backyard steel furnaces, but the only notable result from this plan was a sharp reduction in the amount of food being produced. Although the transfer of industries to local control began as the primary agenda in The Great Leap Forward, through causing an epidemic of famine, it wound up killing approximately 30 million people. The Great Leap Forward, in reality forced China to take huge steps backward in its economic and social development. This breakdown of Chinese society was a direct result of a totalitarian regime's effort to industrialize too rapidly, and the death count is reflective of the regime's blatant disregard for humanity.
Chairman Mao also launched the Socialist Education Movement in the early sixties, whose primary purpose was to restore ideological purity. This movement was designed to stir up excitement and ardent support for the revolution, while at the same time intensifying the class struggles which were already prevalent. The drafting of intellectuals for manual labor was part of the party's plan to inspire professionals and intellectuals to develop a higher regard for the party's objectives. Anti-Maoists were especially annoyed with Mao's relentless efforts to promote his propaganda, which not only served to reinforce the party's ideologies, but to slander the priority system and beliefs of the intellectuals.
After the Mao had no choice but to resign himself to the failures of "The Great Leap Forward" and the "Socialist Education Movement", he began to become increasingly less important in Chinese Government, acting almost solely as a figurehead. The one place where Mao's influence had not yet diminished, however, was within the People's Liberation Army. Mao used the influence he had over its governing Defense Committee to instigate The Cultural Revolution, which lasted from 1966 to 1976.
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